2011 TAXES

In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America willtake effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three greatwaves on January 1, 2011:

First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief

In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families.

These will all expire on January 1, 2011:

Personal income tax rates will rise. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemption s will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15% -

The 25% bracket rises to 28% -

The 28% bracket rises to 31% -

The 33% bracket rises to 36% -

The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%

Higher taxes on marriage and family

The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income. The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level. The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.

The return of the Death Tax. This year, there is no death tax. For those dying on or after January 1 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.

Higher tax rates on savers and investors. The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011. The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011. These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.

Second Wave: Obamacare

There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on January 1, 2011. They include: The “Medicine Cabinet Tax” Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).

The “Special Needs Kids Tax” This provision of Obamacare imposes a cap on flexible spending accounts (FSAs) of $2500 (Currently, there is no federal government limit). There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington , D.C. ( National Child Research Center ) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education.

The HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike. This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.

Third Wave: The Alternative Minimum Tax and Employer Tax Hikes

When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they’ll be in for a nasty surprise-the AMT – (Alternative Minimum Tax) won’t be held harmless, many tax relief provisions will have expired. The major items include:

The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year. According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center , Congress’ failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families-rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.

Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear.

Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or ”depreciate”) equipment purchases up to $250,000. This will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can expense half of their purchases of equipment. In January of 2011, all of it will have to be “depreciated.”

Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses. There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the “research and experimentation tax credit,” but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.

Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced. The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available. Tax credits for education will be limited. Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses.&n bsp; Covered Education Savings Accounts will be cut. Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed. The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.

Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed. Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA. This contribution also counts toward an annual ”required minimum distribution.” This ability will no longer be there.

Now your insurance is INCOME on your W2′s…One of the surprises we’ll find come next year, is what follows – - a little ”surprise” that 99% of us had no idea was included in the “new and improved” healthcare legislation . . . the dupes, er, dopes, who backed this administration will be astonished!

Starting in 2011, (next year folks), your W-2 tax form sent by your employer will be increased to show the value of whatever health insurance you are given by the company. It does not matter if that’s a private concern or governmental body of some sort. If you’re retired? So what; your gross will go up by the amount of insurance you get.

You will be required to pay taxes on a large sum of money that you have never seen. Take your tax form you just finished and see what $15,000 or $20,000 additional gross does to your tax debt. That’s what you’ll pay next year. For many, it also puts you into a new higher bracket so it’s even worse.

This is how the government is going to buy insurance for the 15% that don’t have insurance and it’s only part of the tax increases.

Not believing this??? Here is a research of the summaries…..

On page 25 of 29: TITLE IX REVENUE PROVISIONS- SUBTITLE A: REVENUE OFFSET PROVISIONS-(sec. 9001, as modified by sec. 10901) Sec.9002 “requires employers to include in the W-2 form of each employee the aggregate cost of applicable employer sponsored group health coverage that is excludable from the employees gross income.”

Joan Pryde is the senior tax editor for the Kiplinger letters. Go to Kiplingers and read about 13 tax changes that could affect you. Number 3 is what is above.

3 Comments

Yes taxes will return to the levels that existed when Bill Clinton was president. You all recall how bad things were then. There was high employment. The Federal government had a surplus. The United States was not involved in any wars.

It will require a law enacted by Congress to change the existing law that ends the Bush tax cuts. The law ws enacted in 2001 and 2003. This was not legislations that was passed since then. This was law passed by a Republican Congress and sign by President Bush.

The United States has high debt. Republicans have been champions of lower debt but have not offered any consequential suggestions for accomplishing this goal. There is the problem. We all want the national debt lowered but no one want to surrender any of their benefits.

MB Snow
I realize that you are a conservative. However, just to make this blog more interesting you ought to open up to at least one moderate or liberal. Make this blog a place for discussion of issues rather than just one side.

Didn’t the exploding tech bubble nearly wreck the economy at the end of the Clinton administration?

Didn’t the very worst of the run-away Fannie’s mortgage fraud, insider-dealings and abuse begin under Clinton?

Didn’t the Bosnian War go full tilt boogie under Clinton?

Didn’t Clinton declare Saddam Hussein an imminent threat and make the overthrow and replacement of his government a formal policy of the government of the United States?

Not being a democrat, I see myself as an American. I’m interested in the facts, not the partisan play by play. My identity is not “democrat’ or ‘republican” or “conservative” or “liberal” or “progressive”.

As for those like coastcontact posting above, how I or anybody else votes is none of your business.

What matters is that we vote as contemplative Americans and vote on the facts for the good of our nation and the principles on which it’s founded.

The underlying philosophy and duplicity you’ve displayed here presents a near-perfect and very helpful example demonstrating the mass collective thought disorder that masquerades as partisan politics in America today.

The founders left us quite an experiment in human liberty to preserve, if we can keep it from being dissembled and deconstructed before our very eyes by the dialectical classes.